Quebec robot milker looks to the Ontario market

Thursday, January 2, 2014

The Milkomax robot offers higher productivity, but it comes at a cost. And it requires that cows be trained to back up into the stall

by AMELIA SPROULE & DON STONEMAN

Farmers who love cows also love their tie-stall barns, but they may bemoan the twice or more daily labour that is required at milking time.  

Now the labour-saving Roboleo robot is coming to tie-stalls, albeit at a stiff price. Sainte-Monique Quebec-based Milkomax solutions laitiéres inc (Sainte-Monique is southwest of Trois Riviere) plans to market its tie-stall barn robot into eastern Ontario this year and into western Ontario in 2015.

The robot alone costs approximately $296,000, before installation. Those costs depend upon cleaning equipment already installed in the barn. Sales director Marc Fecteau says the cost of the most expensive installation has so far totalled $350,000 per robot, plus warranty costs.

The company has installed 31 of its robots on 24 farms, mostly in Quebec. (A barn near Casselman, southeast of Ottawa, where two robots were installed, burned last year.) Fecteau has yet to hire bilingual staff to market the machines in the western part of the province.

Unlike "voluntary" milking systems, where the cow comes to the robot, the Milkomax robot comes to the cow on a preprogrammed schedule, explains Fecteau. The robot milker moves on tracks spanning the alleyway between two rows of cows.  The computer control can be programmed to milk each cow at specific hours of the day and as many times as the herd manager desires.

Four years ago the Daoust family; Martin, Guillaume and Dominic, replaced 12 milking units with two Roboleo robots in their tie-stall operation. That didn't mean they reduced the time they spend in the barn, but Martin explains that the robots "provide flexibility." This allows them to plan their work better, work more efficiently and sharpen their focus on animal management and increased milk production.  The brothers, who own and crop 355 acres near St-André- d'Argenteuil northwest of Montreal, have 114 kg of quota. They say the system in Quebec allows them to produce eight per cent in addition to what they own. The brothers fill their total allocation with around 80 Holsteins.

The robots milk newly freshened cows every six hours. Frequency drops to eight hours later in lactation.

Guillaume notes that cows "never need to be pushed" into the Roboleo system the way they sometimes do when being trained for a stationary robot. In fact training isn't really an issue because the robot effectively controls the cow. In rare cases where a cow's physical structure isn't compatible with the robotic milker she is culled.

The brothers say, however, they would opt for stationary robots in a free stall set up if they were building from scratch due to the lower capital investment and slightly reduced repair and maintenance costs.

Four times a year a Milkomax technician performs scheduled maintenance. So far additional repairs have been handled by the brothers with phone support from the company.

The brothers have retained their previous milking system so in a worst-case scenario cows could still be milked the old way. They note that's an option they wouldn't have with a stationary robot in a free-stall situation.

Thinking about where this fits into your operation? The company's promotional information says a single robot will perform up to seven milkings an hour; that is 140 to 160 milkings a day putting through 1,800 to 2,200 litres of milk. And it notes that milking three times a day increases production by 10 to 15 per cent compared to twice a day. Quality of life is stressed in the literature, which, in the fall, was entirely in French on the company's website.

Cows must be trained to back up three or four steps into the milking stall, and it does take practice, Fecteau notes. He recommends one to two weeks practice backing up into the stall, followed by four weeks of supervised milking before cows can be left on their own. Fecteau links the acceptance of the robot to the dedication that the farmer puts into the training. Generally, depending upon the herd, only one or two of 100 cows will not accept the machine, says Fecteau, who points to one herd of 44 cows with a 100 per cent success rate adapting to the machine.

The additional benefits of the Roboleo milker are similar to those offered by voluntary robot systems, Fecteau says. Milk volume is recorded. Mastitis can be detected as early as 36 hours before it presents in the cow. The machine shuts off milking when each teat is finished. Fecteau says operators can expect increased longevity for their milking cows and better production. He is reluctant to give specifics on return on investment, but estimates there will be a payback in eight to 10 years.

Clinton-based agricultural engineer Harold House describes the robots as "unique . . . They are kind of a curiosity, but they do work." This robot was demonstrated along with other such devices at Canada's Outdoor Farm Show in 2012. House says the Roboleo contains elements of the Lely stationary milking robot used in freestall barns and Tony Brazda, Lely's regional sales manager for Eastern Canada, confirms that the old A2 arms are used in this device. "Officially, there is no affiliation between the companies at all." However, Milkomax does purchase older Lely robots and refurbish the parts. "By the time they are done with it, it really is a different machine."

Brazda measures the capacity of Lely machines not by milkings or cows per day, but by the amount of quota it can handle.  The general rule of thumb is that a Lely robot can conservatively handle the cows and milk for 70 kilograms of quota. "There is no substitution for a little extra capacity," he says.

House was surprised to watch the video on the Roboleo website and see that the cows step back onto the platform for the milking machine and wonders about the practicality of having neck chains long enough to allow that.  He also wonders how big the market is for the robot in Ontario, noting that many barns are either four rows, where the robot would not work, or are not large enough to warrant the robot's use. "You would need a long straight run to make this feasible," he allows.

Fecteau says the barn that burned near Casselman will be rebuilt as a tie-stall and open in July with two new Roboleo robots in place milking cows. BF

With files from Robert Irwin